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BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
Published in: BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making 1/2020

Open Access 01-12-2020 | Research article

Investigating usability of mobile health applications in Bangladesh

Authors: Muhammad Nazrul Islam, Md. Mahboob Karim, Toki Tahmid Inan, A. K. M. Najmul Islam

Published in: BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making | Issue 1/2020

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Abstract

Background

Lack of usability can be a major barrier for the rapid adoption of mobile services. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the usability of Mobile Health applications in Bangladesh.

Method

We followed a 3-stage approach in our research. First, we conducted a keyword-based application search in the popular app stores. We followed the affinity diagram approach and clustered the found applications into nine groups. Second, we randomly selected four apps from each group (36 apps in total) and conducted a heuristic evaluation. Finally, we selected the highest downloaded app from each group and conducted user studies with 30 participants.

Results

We found 61% usability problems are catastrophe or major in nature from heuristic inspection. The most (21%) violated heuristic is aesthetic and minimalist design. The user studies revealed low System Usability Scale (SUS) scores for those apps that had a high number of usability problems based on the heuristic evaluation. Thus, the results of heuristic evaluation and user studies complement each other.

Conclusion

Overall, the findings suggest that the usability of the mobile health apps in Bangladesh is not satisfactory in general and could be a potential barrier for wider adoption of mobile health services.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Investigating usability of mobile health applications in Bangladesh
Authors
Muhammad Nazrul Islam
Md. Mahboob Karim
Toki Tahmid Inan
A. K. M. Najmul Islam
Publication date
01-12-2020
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making / Issue 1/2020
Electronic ISSN: 1472-6947
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-020-1033-3

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